David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to the House. The last time he was in the House when we had a discussion about a Bill to reform the HSE, I mentioned a working group that was established to look at hospital networks. The Minister will also be aware of a south-east hospital working group, which also sent a submission to him and which is headed up by Professor Fred Jackson. The submission was about a regional structure for the south east, that works and that is based on maintaining services in the south-east region, and obviously wanting to protect the status of Waterford Regional Hospital.

Professor Fred Jackson, a spokesperson for the south east hospitals working group, has said that a key reform being proposed by the Department of Health involves the establishment of hospital groups in Ireland. His group believes that this proposal is consistent with the programme for Government and that it recognises the clinical networks which have already been established within the region. He went on to say that if implemented, the proposal would ensure that patients of the south-east region can access high-quality care on a timely, local and cost-effective basis and that is what the people of Waterford want.

There is certainly a need to realign some services, cardiac services being one example, across the south east. We do not have 24-7 cardiac care in Waterford Regional Hospital, for example. Some of the services are fragmented. There is an appetite within the region to build up capacity in the regional hospital but to do so in the best interests of all patients across the region. Obviously the hospital, like all others in the State, has suffered from cutbacks in recent years but I must put on record my appreciation of the staff and management of the hospital, who are doing their very best in difficult circumstances and are providing very good services to the people of the south east.

There is a genuine fear that there might be a proposal to create a new network which would link Waterford to Cork, with the possibility of services in Waterford Regional Hospital drifting away to Cork, which would not be in the best interests of the people of Waterford or the south east generally. It would also fly in the face of the logic of the Minister's attempts to ensure that people have access to world-class health services as close as possible to their communities, but also on a regional basis, where practical and appropriate. That is what we are seeking here.

The Minister is already aware of this issue and he received a copy of the submission. I appreciate that a review is being carried out across the country regarding hospital networks but I just wanted to put on the record the fear that many consultants, not just in Waterford, but across the south east have, of not maintaining a regional entity within the south east and of a drift of services towards Cork, under a new hospital network set-up. I look forward to the Minister's response and hope he will outline what he feels is the most appropriate way forward for the region.